It remains to be seen whether President Obama and Congress will do what it takes to protect U.S. free speech in the face of unprecedented, unbridled foreign cyber-aggression from China. (Source: REUTERS/Jim Young)

(Source: Asia News)

Pressure is on President Obama and Congress to protect American free speech against unbridled Chinese cyber-agression

In the definitive cyberpunk novel Neuromancer, published in 1984, author William Gibson prophetically envisioned that wars of the future would be fought over the internet -- a new construct at the time. Today that prediction appears on the verge of coming true as we stand on the threshold of a vast digital battle. Agents in China, believed to be working for, or endorsed by the Chinese federal government are carrying out a secret cyberwar against the U.S. government and U.S. businesses. And that war appears to be escalating.

I. An Imprisoned Artist

Change.org, a progressive, for-profit advocacy group, recently launched a campaign to free imprisoned Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei. The site now has found itself the subject of a dedicated internet attack by the legion Chinese hackers.

So who is Ai Weiwei and how did this mess get started?

Weiwei, 53, rose to prominence in China's artistic community in the 1970s and 1980s as a founding member of the art collective "Stars" (not to be confused with the similarly named Canadian indie rock band). Ironically the Chinese government initially embraced the provocative multi-dimensional artist, even contracting Weiwei to help design Beijing National Stadium, which housed part of the 2008 Summer Olympics.

But Weiwei's probing into the corruption of the Chinese government and his provocative work made him many enemies in the communist nation's bureaucratic ranks. And on April 3 Weiwei was arrested and imprisoned, in part for his alleged support of the Jasmine protests -- a series of pro-democracy protests sweeping across China earlier this year.

The petition currently has over 130,000 signatures making it the group's second highest profile petition. The petition also is drawing a great deal of attention in the media [1][2][3].

II. China Attacks

The advocacy group didn't get a kind response from China. Soon after the campaign began, distributed denial of service attacks began on the site. Describes Brian Purchia, Communications Director for Change.org, "Change.org has been under a cyber attack for about 2 weeks after a campaign to free Ai Weiwei went viral."

We interviewed Mr. Purchia on the nature of these attacks. He describes:

The original attack was a DoS Attack from two IP addresses in China. It started Monday, 4/18. It is still ongoing, but is now a bot.net attack. We are working with an online security services provider to keep our site up and protect our organization.

The downtime associated with the cyber-attack on Change.org has cost our company tens of thousands of dollars in revenue, and we've had to spend tens of thousands of dollars more to ensure the site doesn't suffer from the ongoing attacks.

The group, which has seen its fair share of controversy and challenges in the past is working with an experience online services provider and thus far has been able to maintain partial service to its website, even in the midst of the heavy attack. However, the costs are threatening the organization, so it's calling on the government to intervene and defend U.S. interests.

"We were contacted by a special agent from the FBI cyber squad, which has opened an official investigation into the DDoS attack on Change.org initiated on April 18. We are currently working with them to assess the various elements of this attack and mitigate its impact on our platform," Ben Rattray, Change.org founder describes.

Andrew J. Laine, spokesman for the U.S. State Department issued a statement last week, commenting, "Secretary Clinton has been a leading voice for Internet freedom around the world, and has elevated the issue to the top tier of American foreign policy. The State Department condemns all cyber attacks designed to stifle free speech on the Internet, including via 'distributed denial of service,' or DDOS."

The State Department stand comes after U.S. Representative Rosa L. DeLauro (D-Conn.) wrote a letter to State Department Secretary Hillary Clinton urging her to take a stand against the attacks. The letter received endorsement from U.S. House of Representatives Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

Mr. Rattray praised the State Department's ensuing response, commenting, "This shows how seriously the State Department is taking the attacks on Change.org. We ask Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to condemn the ongoing attacks on the world's leading platform for social change and stand with Ai Weiwei. Americans should be allowed to freely organize online without foreign interference."

IV. China Tells U.S. to Censor the Media

China's government has issued a statement attacking Change.org and, in effect, demanding the nullification of the American media's Constitutionally-guaranteed right to free speech.

"The issue is under investigation and the outside should not comment on this issue habitually," ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu, "We hope that the outside can respect China's judicial sovereignty and judicial authorities handling the issue in accordance with law."

China, in the midst of a massive crackdown on dissents and alleged human rights violations, appears to be looking to flex its cyber-muscle to shut up the noisy American media.

In China, reporters who covered the imprisonment of Ai Weiwei have begun to disappear. Critics of the Chinese government fear that these reporters may be residing in Chinese prison -- or worse.

V. Pending Legislation

Change.org is calling on Congress to pass legislation that would give additional prosecution powers to combat foreign cyber-attackers. Mr. Purchia comments, "In terms of legislation to stop foreign cyber-attacks, Change.org is definitely interested in seeing Congress make cyber security a priority -- we've heard for years about how future wars will be fought online -- that future is now. We need our leaders to stand up for the right to organize online without foreign interference."

President Obama has vowed to get tough on cyber-security, much as he has on terrorism. But it remains to be seen whether the President and members of the U.S. Congress will be willing to put aside their partisan differences and get tough on China, putting America's strength behind rebuffing the Asian giant's direct digital assault on American free speech.

"This is about the Internet. Everything on the Internet is encrypted. This is not a BlackBerry-only issue. If they can't deal with the Internet, they should shut it off." -- RIM co-CEO Michael Lazaridis